VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Charleston or Havana?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Charleston for

  • food and drink
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Charleston’s own page.

Choose Havana for

  • live music and the arts
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Havana’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Charleston 72, Havana 64: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Havana 40: Charleston leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Havana 77: Havana leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Havana 60: Havana leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Havana 34: Charleston leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Havana 38: Charleston leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Havana 34: Charleston leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Havana 38: Charleston leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Havana 30: Charleston leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Havana 58: Havana leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Havana 74: Havana leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Havana 22: Charleston leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Havana.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on food and drink and families with your weighting.

Havana
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonHavana

Where the figures come from

Havana has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonHavana
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation6 m59 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonHavana
City population150,2272,492,618
People per km²5323,423
Museums within 10 km1912
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston or Havana somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.